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Damages payouts for healthcare blunders by private contractors have cost more than £54million in total since the Tories took office (Image: Getty)

Separate figures show the number of NHS operations by private healthcare firms soared to 536,000 last year – from 313,000 in 2010-11.

Dr Eric Watts, of the Doctors for the NHS campaign, said quality and safety suffer without adequate staffing and training.

He added: “Best results come from stable co-ordinated teams and the NHS has been good at providing these.

"But some current ideas are to move away from this ‘conventional’ approach and find new providers who may not offer the same stability and quality assurance.”

The NHS Litigation Authority, which supplied the figures and makes payouts to affected patients, said it was not possible to reveal how many people were harmed in any one year.

Diane Abbott has described the figures as appalling (Image: Getty)

It aims to claw back the money from the companies at fault, but it is not clear how effective this approach is.

But the NHS Litigation Authority denied that it has to claw back any money, and explained that it runs a "risk pooling scheme". It insisted this is a highly effective system, and said that its rules apply equally to both NHS and non-NHS providers.

It said: “Independent providers deliver almost 8% of all NHS care but account for a much smaller proportion of compensation paid.”

In total, £1.38billion was paid out in NHS clinical negligence claims, legal fees and other costs last year.

But this cannot be compared to the £21.1million figure for private sector blunders because that includes payouts alone and not extra costs.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “Patients deserve the best and safest care, but when mistakes occur it is only right they are compensated.”

Tragic cost of healthcare blunders

Doris Allen died after doctors failed to spot a damaged artery

Doris Allen, 88, died at the Sussex Orthopaedic NHS Treatment Centre, run by private firm Care UK, after doctors failed to spot an artery damaged in surgery.

Nicola Wainwright, of the law firm which represented her family, has previously said: “Those in government who are currently signing contracts for NHS services with the private sector should study what happened to Mrs Allen at the Sussex Orthopaedic Treatment Centre.

“The staff employed were inexperienced and there was a catalogue of basic medical errors, equipment problems and systemic failings.”

After Mrs Allen’s death, the centre - one of the first privately run NHS hospitals - was taken over by the NHS.

How much compensation has increased (Image: Daily Mirror)

Her family received an undisclosed sum of compensation.

Mrs Allen died in 2009 because of failures of care after hip surgery at the centre in Haywards Heath.

The consultant in charge of her post-operative care failed to diagnose serious blood loss caused by damage to an artery during surgery.

The hospital, run at the time for the NHS by the contractor Care UK, was then responsible for a series of catastrophic errors that delayed emergency treatment for Mrs Allen.

She later died of multi-organ failure at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton.

After Mrs Allen’s death, Care UK lost the Haywards Heath contract and management of the centre has been taken over by the NHS.

In a statement at the time, Care UK said: “The death of Mrs Allen had a lasting impact on the team who helped to care for her and we offer, once again, our sincere condolences to her family for their sad loss.”